Sleep apnea is very common, particularly in the heavy equipment operator population. Studies show that up to 28 percent of heavy equipment operators may be afflicted. Primary risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty. Fortunately sleep apnea can be diagnosed and, with treatment, quality of life and health benefits can be realized.
For a company, an employee with sleep apnea can cause accidents on the job. Identification of employees with sleep apnea, promptly treating workers with sleep apnea, such as construction workers, heavy equipment operators, oil field drilling operators, chemical plant operators, offshore drill equipment and work over equipment operators, and earth moving equipment operators if treated for their sleep apnea will cause fewer accidents.
Sleep apnea is defined as the cessation of breathing during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common form of sleep apnea. OSA occurs when the tissues in the back of the throat repetitively collapse during sleep, producing snoring and complete airway blockage. This blockage creates pauses in breathing that occur repeatedly every night. In severe cases they can occur as frequently as every 30 seconds. Alarmingly, they can last up to a full minute. The condition causes the person to wake up repeatedly, having disturbed sleep, and forms of insomnia.
These repetitive pauses in breathing during sleep are accompanied by a reduction in blood oxygen levels and are followed by an arousal response. This response includes a release of substances into the bloodstream, which promote elevation of blood pressure, inflammation, insulin resistance, and a disruption of the brain wave sleep pattern.
The consequences of untreated sleep apnea include poor quality sleep, excessive daytime fatigue, sleepiness, irritability, hard-to-control high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Interestingly, and not coincidentally, many of these same medical conditions account for the majority of health-related expenditures in the heavy equipment operator and chemical plant worker and refinery worker populations. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment, vehicle crashes, and lost loads when operating dump trucks, earth moving equipment, and cranes.
Traditional methods for diagnosing sleep apnea in heavy equipment operators and refinery and chemical workers are time consuming and often interfere with the ability to perform constructions and operation tasks, which results in the company as well as the operator suffering economic deprivation or being fired.
The recognition of the dangers associated with heavy equipment operators and improper sleep is evident in the numerous regulations developed to ensure that heavy equipment operators receive proper sleep.
There exists a need to efficiently screen for sleep apnea in heavy equipment operators.
There exists a need to efficiently determine whether a heavy equipment operator has sleep apnea.
There exists a need to efficiently treat those with sleep apnea.
There exists a need to efficiently monitor a heavy equipment operator's use of sleep apnea treatment equipment.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.